I have known Carl Beech for quite a few years.
I’ve seen him call an event with hundreds to their knees in repentance of violence against women. In many conversations I had with women who were uncomfortable with some of his ideas and views I defended him, explaining that he loves Jesus and is a good guy. But the article written by him and published in Premier Childrenswork left me enraged.
The article is framed as ‘Christian Vision for Men’s Carl Beech thinks it’s time to man up and face the reality of a feminised Church.’ Man up is a term that has often been used towards male victims of sexual abuse to describe how they should respond to the choice of someone to violate them. It has been used to sneer at little boys when they are hurt and it has been used to bully and devalue men who don’t conform to gender norms. What does it mean that the Church has been ‘feminised’? When it’s used to suggest the Church is failing, it suggests women are the problem.
Natalie Collins (@GodLovesWomen)
The article talked about the ‘broad spectrum of masculinity’ and then proceeds to talk about stereotypes.
I could tell you that I am not a ‘typical’ man – but this would be nonsense. I am like nobody else, and neither are you. If I listed a bunch of my traits, whether you are a man or a woman you would identify with some and not others. I don’t believe you can start any sentence with ‘most men…’ or ‘most women…’
Our boys need to see men and women leading, teaching, pastoring, mentoring, nurturing and modelling the life of Christ. Our girls need to see men and women leading, teaching, pastoring, mentoring, nurturing and modelling the life of Christ. The issue isn’t the way we do Sunday School, the issue isn’t feminine stuff in church, the issue isn’t whether a group allows rough and tumble or not: the issue is leadership. Leadership of the Church as a whole and the ethos created. So, are the skills and gifts and traits and talents and personality of every child harnessed? Or are hopes and dreams extinguished because of a preoccupation with gender?
Ali Campbell
My response to Carl’s feature is different; I can’t say I agree with every word he says, but then that’s true of most features we publish.
He raises some issues that we should face up to even if we don’t necessarily agree with some of his solutions. Carl majored on how our churches could become places where boys and men like this could fit in better, but it makes me ask a different question of how we hone and nurture these boys to be the type of men, fathers and husbands that our society needs. According to Steve Biddulph, in his excellent book Raising Boys, that means we need to actively engage in raising emotionally intelligent men who are more empathetic and better at processing their emotions, so that sadness or frustration or fear doesn’t all fly out as anger. The girls in our groups are growing up in a society where there are amazing opportunities for them to work and lead in places that in the past were male-dominated, including church leadership, but they will still be likely to earn less than men and be judged more harshly, especially for their appearance. We need to think about how we inspire girls to take their places as leaders in the Church even if they don’t see it happening in their church now.
Sam Donoghue
I get that churches need men’s ministry. I even get that an ‘out there’ radical form of such might attract groups of men previously put off by Church.
But there is something fundamentally wrong in framing that ministry around misogynistic attitudes and the belittling of women. The problem with seeing men as the natural leaders is that they are not always willing to step up to it. I have seen several examples of a Deborah behind a Barak in church except, unlike in the Biblical story, those women do not often get the recognition for being the strong leader that Deborah does in the people’s song in Judges. Personally, I reached a point where I was doing most of the paperwork and managerial tasks for the church youth club (having previously managed a youth centre for the local authority and with the absence of others willing or able to take on some of those tasks). However, the male church elder involved was very much seen as the leader of the youth club. He even sent me an email at one point stating I had ‘successfully applied for the position of youth club secretary’. That stung a bit.
Naomi Stanton
